Why the California Raisins Have Stopped Singing Using 1930s-era regulations, the USDA can commandeer up to half a farmer’s harvest. by James Bovard Wall Street Journal May 27, 2014 Earlier this month the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the U.S. Department of Agriculture taking 47% of a farmer’s harvest does not […]
Tag Archives | tyranny
My Zoning Crackdown Eviction Notice & 1996 Playboy Article on Zoning
Reading about the city of Richmond’s zoning code crackdown on Tom Blanton reminded me of how I fell into similar crosshairs while living in Blacksburg, Virginia in the late 1970s. Here’s the riff from Public Policy Hooligan: How An Eviction Notice Made Me an Anti-Zoning Zealot – In late 1976, I moved into a […]
Waco: FBI Final Assault 21 Years Ago Today
Twenty-one years ago today, the FBI assaulted and demolished the Branch Davidians’ home outside of Waco, Texas. That assault and the subsequent coverups helped redefine the relation of the federal government to the American people. Millions of citizens never looked at Washington the same afterwards. I reposted some of the articles I did in […]
20 Years Ago: The Growing IRS Dictatorship (Wall Street Journal)
The IRS did not start its mischief recently. Here’s a piece of mine published on April 14, 1994 – Wall Street Journal -The Growing IRS Dictatorship By James Bovard A Gallup Poll released last week found that two-thirds of Americans believe that the Internal Revenue Service abuses its power. Yet few people realize exactly how […]
Supreme Court Rebuffs Ruinous Raisin Regime
From the Future of Freedom Foundation – A Supreme Rebuff for Ruinous Raisin Regime by James Bovard The Supreme Court in June finally opened the door for farmers to escape from one of the most dictatorial bureaucratic regimes in the federal government. But it remains to be seen whether farmers will secure freedom and justice […]
Voting Rights as Bogus Panaceas
From the Future of Freedom Foundation (October 2013) VOTING RIGHTS AS BOGUS PANACEAS by James Bovard The Supreme Court struck down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act last June. “Liberals” were horrified and reacted as if the Civil War had been fought in vain. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Ginsburg denounced the decision for […]
Hillary Clinton’s Legacy: Democracy in Egypt
A front page Washington Post piece revealed today that Hillary Clinton is racing to finish her memoir so that she can define her legacy in time for her 2016 presidential run. Shortly after Hillary Clinton became Secretary of State, she promised to reform foreign aid. Egypt has gotten billions of aid in the meantime – […]